


Five Senses

by overstrand_marcia_i



Category: Septimus Heap - Angie Sage
Genre: Angst, F/M, Magyk, Marcellia, Other, Septimus Heap - Freeform, The Palace, time slips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 15:31:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17368562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overstrand_marcia_i/pseuds/overstrand_marcia_i
Summary: Visiting the Palace has a tendency to give Marcellus Pye a great deal of anxiety. This is one instance in which Marcellus is successful in warding it off.





	Five Senses

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own or claim any relation to the Septimus Heap franchise. All canon characters are credited to Angie Sage. This is simply fancontent, created for other fans.

**Five Senses:**

Marcellia One-Shot Fic

     Marcellus closed his eyes as he stepped outside the Palace gates, trying to push back the rising panic in his chest.  _Not now,_  he told himself, _not here_. His hands shook and so he twisted them together behind his back in an attempt to control it.

     He now remembered why he had recently taken to avoiding the Palace. It was like a magnet for bad memories. Whenever Marcellus was there, time slips flooded his mind like sparks set fire to gasoline, and he simply didn’t want to think about it anymore, any of it, because  _it hurt._

    Marcellus took a deep breath and turned away from the double doors, opening his eyes once more and trying to clear his mind. He faced the tiny drawbridge and the gardens.  _All right, Marcellus,_  he thought,  _fix it. You cannot very well walk back in there an awful mess. Think through it._

A shudder ran through Marcellus. “Stop it, Marcellus,” he muttered under his breath. “Okay. I’m fine, I’m…fine.” He looked down and then across the horizon. “I see gold cursive, a well-trodden stone pathway, the green grass of the end of summer, the red and orange sunset and the dark silhouettes of houses along Alchemie Way.”  _Got it. Five things I can see. Everything will be fine._

“Just breathe,” Marcellus reminded himself, letting his hands fall to his sides. “I hear laughter coming from inside the Palace, my own breathing, a cardinal’s song, and the faint echo of conversation along the walls.”  _I’m fine._ he thought to himself, feeling the tension in his body slowly come undone. _Four things I hear. All right._

     Marcellus shifted in his stance. “I feel the light wool of my robes, I feel the ground underneath me, and I feel the light chill in the air.”  _Three things I can touch._  He started to feel better as his fingers curled around a sleeve and held it tightly.

_Two things I can smell._ Marcellus sniffed the air lightly.  _Marcia’s perfume,_ he thought with a slight smile, realizing it must have come from their hug earlier.  _And late blooming, summer flowers._

“One more,” Marcellus said aloud. He popped a peppermint from his pocket into his mouth, “That,” he stated.  _One thing I can taste. I’ve got it. I’m okay._

     Marcellus felt himself calming down by focusing on just his senses. Collecting his thoughts, he clasped his hands behind his back and turned towards the door, extremely glad that he hadn’t let it escalate into a full-scale anxiety attack. Those were worse…much worse; Marcellus shook his head, trying to focus again on the present moment.

    The twin doors burst open all of a sudden and out tumbled Marcia in a cascade of purple. “Marcellus!” she said, “Are you alright? You just disappeared and I…I was…worried,” she added the last part very softly, but Marcellus heard her.

 Marcellus looked her in the eyes.  _Had she really been worried?_ he wondered. “Marcia,” he started somewhat awkwardly, “Would you like to go for a walk with me?”

     Marcia blushed and was quiet a moment. “I think I would like that very much.” 


End file.
